Employee Engagement – useful concept or practical reality?

The concept of employee engagement has provoked a great deal of debate since being introduced 25 years ago. Its supporters would claim that engagement programmes can enhance organisational performance when the energy generated from engagement is routed on the path needed to achieve organisational goals.

Timings: 09.00-16.00

Who is it for?Senior business people with responsibilities for, or an interest in, the concept of employee engagement and its contribution to corporate effectiveness.

Overview
The concept of employee engagement has provoked a great deal of debate since being introduced 25 years ago. Its supporters would claim that engagement programmes can enhance organisational performance when the energy generated from engagement is routed on the path needed to achieve organisational goals.

Detractors assert that there is nothing new in the notion of engagement, being largely the creative repackaging of other more well defined and accepted management concepts. They question whether there is a causal link between apparent higher levels of engagement and organisational performance.

ContentDr. Theresa Welbourne will outline her views with particular reference to engagement in multinationals and evidence of any cultural influences. Theresa’s theory of engagement identifies five distinct roles which employees engage in when at work: core job role; career role; team role; innovator role and organisation role.

Rob Briner will offer a reality check and share his own views on the whole field of employee engagement and its relevance. He will focus on:

• defining engagement – too many definitions and none are universally accepted
• measuring engagement – no adequate or reliable measures
• engagement is nothing new or different, and may not add value
• there is almost no good quality evidence with which to answer the most important questions about engagement
• there is a propensity to over-claim or mis-claim the importance and role of engagement.

The meeting will also discuss a European case study on the practicalities of addressing engagement, the pros and cons and its ultimate impact on business performance.

November 17th 2016

New Paths for Employee Engagement

Are we thinking about employee engagement in the right way? This presentation by Theresa Welbourne explores a different perspective on looking at engagement and employee engagement programmes. Moving from simply looking at engagement itself to asking a question - Engaging in What?

November 17th 2016

Employee Engagement: What's the Evidence?

Are employee engagement programmes delivering results for business and is there any evidence to back the effectiveness of such programmes? In his morning presentation at the workshop, Rob Briner takes a look at the evidence behind employee engagement as a tool for performance management. Through research examples and data on job satisfaction and tenure in the UK, USA and Germany, Rob presents the evidence behind employee engagement as management tool. However, is it sufficient?

November 17th 2016

Employee Engagement: What's the Alternative

Is employee engagement simply a bandwagon HR professionals are jumping on and if so, how should we think about employee engagement and what are the alternatives? In his second presentation at the CRF workshop in Munich, Rob Briner answers these questions.

November 11th 2016

Employee Engagement: Current Practices and Practicalities

The concept of employee engagement has provoked a great deal of debate since being introduced 25 years ago. Its supporters would claim that engagement programmes can enhance organisational performance when the energy generated from engagement is routed on the path needed to achieve organisational goals.
This is CRF's third report on the subject of engagement and focuses on what is currently happening in organisations in practice, and looking for similarities and differences across cultures, sectors and types of workforce. The report explores what business imperatives stimulate organisations to take engagement initiatives, the frameworks they adopt, what they hope to achieve and what is really happening in getting managers, employees and others to behave differently.